Tools

Here’s some handy tools for you. If you have others you’d like to suggest, leave a link and recommendation in the comments, and I’ll add it here. When we get enough to make sense, I’ll break them into categories.

For a good general analysis of all the major factors, including keywords and keyphrases, I really like SEO Workers’ Analysis Tool. It’s also available as an add-on for either FireFox or Chrome.

If you’re into testing, here’s a free downloadable Excel spreadsheet from iSixSigma, to help with your analysis, along with a tutorial.

If you’d like to check your pages’ loadspeed and more, this is the one to use: WebPageTestTool.

And here’s a Rank Checker tool that may come in handy, if you’re into that sort of thing.

If you’re on a WordPress platform, I highly recommend the AVH First Defense Against Spam plugin. It checks registrations and comments against blacklisted IP addresses on StopForumSpam.com as well as your local blacklist.

Another great tool for monitoring your website for both risks and actions that might either make you vulnerable to attack or signal that an attack has been attempted is Website Defender. It’s free, flexible and effective, and it emails you if it detects any critical, medium, low or informational issues you should be aware of.

And if you’re into copywriting, here are a few tools that may come in handy from time to time.

For checking uniqueness of copy (similar to Copyscape), try Un.Co.Ver. (Unfortunately, Un.Co.Ver has been discontinued. I’m looking for another alternative and will add what I find here.Meanwhile, Copyscape, though not free, is the best option I’ve found.)